I Can Hear the Bells
by audrey-diva
Summary: A story of Merry and Pippin SLASH
1. And it begins

Pippin woke up and tore his weary eyes open. His head was throbbing. He couldn't remember anything. He peered out of the window and then shut his eyes tight against the bright morning sun seeping through the curtains. He sat up carefully, immediatly regreting it. He held his head in his hands, trying to make the pain subside. He let out a moan and laid back down. His eyes snapped open as he felt something moving next to him. Someone. He cleared his throat softly, and waitied, wondering what to do. He finally got the courage to sit up and look. He looked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again, and then tried to wake the sleeping hobbit.br  
  
"Merry! Merry, wake up!" he shoved the hobbit next to him.  
  
"I'm up, i'm up," he muttered sleepily. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, and then stared at Pippin. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"I asked you first," Merry said playfully, giving Pippin a little shove. He then snuggled back down under the covers and closed his eyes. Pippin cleared his throat.  
  
"Yes, but you're in my bed." Merry sat up boltright.  
  
"What do you mean?" He looked around the room, realizing, for the first time, that he was in fact in Pippin's bed. "What happened? I don't remember this Pip. This isn't funny." Pippin shrugged and looked at him in horror. As far as he was concerned, if Merry didn't know what was going on, the situation didn't look too good.  
  
"I don't know Merry! I just woke up, and...there you were!" Merry cursed under his breath and looked around the room for his clothes. "Merry..."  
  
"Well, Pip, it looks like we drank too much last night. Close your eyes." Pippin did as he was told while Merry got out of the bed and put his clothes on. "Ok." Merry threw Pippin his clothes and walked over to the mirror and started straightening his messy curls out.  
  
"So that's it? We just drank to much? You're going to leave it at that?" Merry looked at him oddly, and then turned back to the mirror.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well...since neither of us remember what happened...well, we don't really know what happened...and in that case, there could have...have been some things to happen that..." Pippin stopped nervously, looking at Merry for help.  
  
"Pippin, dear Pippin. You worry too much. Here, let's just put it like this. Is anythning happened, it was all in fun and we enjoyed it. Better?" He began to walk towards the door. "I'm going to see if it's too late for breakfast...I'll save you something."  
  
"But Merry..."  
  
"What is it Pip?"  
  
"Well...I don't know...I just..." again, he trailed off miserably.   
  
"Pippin, what's the matter?"  
  
"I don't know...I just feel...I feel wrong. What if we did something that," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "wasn't right." Merry gave a small laugh and sat down on the corner of the bed.  
  
"Everybody's gotten drunk and done silly things, Pip. It's ok."   
  
"I wish I could believe you."   
  
"Pippin!" he said in mock horror. "Have I ever lied to you?"  
  
"Just that once. About the carrots. Well, maybe twice. No, three times, because remember when-"  
  
"Pippin, I'm not lieing now. I promise." Pippin looked into his eyes, wondering and yearning. He tried to put all of the thoughts swimming around out of his head. He took a deep breath and tried again to speak.  
  
"So, what do we do?"  
  
"Well, that's simple. We just don't talk about it, Pip. Really, it's ok." Pippin bit his lip, deep in thought.  
  
"But it isn't right, and-"  
  
"Stop worrying about what's right. There's nothing we can do about it anyways. Now, I'm getting hungry. Are you coming with me?" Pippin shook his head. "Are you sure? You don't want something to eat?" He shook his head again. Merry sighed. "Look, Pip. If all of this means so much, then what do you want me to do about it?"  
  
"What can we do to make it right?"  
  
"I still don't see what's not right about it, Pip." Pippin sighed and began to pull his clothes on. "It's not right, because you're a boy. And so am I, and just supposing, just suppose that last night we did something that-"  
  
"What makes you think that being with another boy is so wrong?" Pippin looked at him, confused. "Well?"  
  
"Well, no one ever said that it was right, and I just don't think-"  
  
"But did anyone ever tell you that it was wrong?"  
  
"No...but, they didn't-"  
  
"If they didn't say it was wrong, then who's to say it isn't right?" Pippin stopped for a moment, thinking. New swarms of thoughts flew through his head. Maybe Merry was right...maybe the two of them weren't such a bad idea. Did that mean he was suggesting- "But I'm off...I think if I don't get something to eat, I'll bust." He leaned over a gave Pippin a quick peck on the cheek. "Don't worry about it. Get washed up, and then come down for breakfast." Pippin nodded and watched Merry walk out of the room, humming. 


	2. Jealous much?

A/N Well, I'm not one for disclaimers of author's notes, but thanks sooo much to my reviewers...it made me feel sooooo awesome!! Each one!! Shamon- is this better? This is not only my first m/p, it's my first slash, my first lotr, and my first fanfic all together. So I'm new at this :D Anymore helpful hints would be really really great! Thank you all sooo much! I hope you enjoy!!  
  
As the next few weeks past, nobody noticed a difference. Merry continued his visits to the Great Smials. Pippin found that he was the only one who saw Merry talking overly confident to the girls, complimenting them and asking them to dance. Pippin was the only one who noticed the way he blew kisses to them and made them blush. It wasn't an easy thing to admit, but he himself was jealous. He told himself over and over to push all thoughts of that night out of his mind, only to find that the thoughts would invade again, probing deeper into his heart and soul, and making his head ache with all the possibilities.   
  
But that's just what they were- possibilities. Pippin could now clearly see that out of all the times they had spent together, that one "drunken" night was the last one on Merry's mind. No one noticed the chance in Pippin. No one except Merry.  
  
"Pippin, come help me finish these," Merry mumbled lazily. He was lying on his back, underneath the shade of a great oak on a hill overlooking the Smials. It had been a beautiful and prosperous day; they ran, hid, plundered, and all sorts of that manner, as they had always done during Merry's visits. The bright afternoon was slowly fading into night; they both watched the beautiful sunset from that hill, Merry on his back, and Pippin sitting next to him, pulling blades of grass from the ground absentmindedly.  
  
"Sorry, do what?" Pippin asked, glancing over at Merry.  
  
"I said, help me finish these. These berries? The ones we just picked?"  
  
"Oh...right," Pippin said, grabbing a handful of berries and popping one into his mouth. Merry chewed thoughtfully, looking from Pippin to the sun, and then back to Pippin. He finally spoke, softly, and yet reassuring, in the way Merry always spoke to Pippin when he knew his younger cousin was frightened.  
  
"Pip...are you ok?"  
  
"I'm fine," Pip answered hastily, shoving another berry in his mouth.  
  
"You just haven't seemed yourself at all today. Or for the past few weeks, really. Ever since..." Merry trailed off, thinking it wiser not to continue. Pippin said nothing in reply to the comment, and Merry stared off into the sunset, trying to think of something to say.   
  
"Look, Pip. I know that something's wrong. You don't have to tell me...but I want to know. I want you to be happy, and it just seems like you're so...unhappy," Merry finished, trying not to sound like an adult trying to get a child to confess to a crime they had committed.  
  
"I don't know Merry. I just don't feel too well."   
  
"It's about that night. Isn't it. Just admit it. We can talk about it. Make it right."  
  
Pippin looked over at him, his face now welling up with something between anger, fear, and sadness.  
  
"What do you mean? There's nothing to talk about it. Nothing to make right. You said so yourself, didn't you," Pippin blurted out angrily. "But I guess you're used to it, as you go off drinking with the girls all the time. Just last night, in fact, I saw you and-"  
  
"Wait a minute, Pip," Merry said, cutting him off. "What are you talking about? I promise to you that there's no other hobbit that I would ever even consider...well, you know. It's you that-" Merry stopped short, realizing what he had done.   
  
"You wouldn't consider anyone else? It's me? What's me? What do I do, Merry?"  
  
Merry turned away from Pippin.  
  
"Pippin, I have something to tell you. I don't know what you'll think, but it seems I've already gotten my foot stuck in the door jam, and there's no way of getting out of this one."  
  
"Go ahead," Pippin said quietly. His heart was beating so loud and fast that he was surprised that Merry couldn't actually hear it.  
  
"I wasn't drunk that night."  
  
"What?" Pippin said, astonished.  
  
"I wasn't drunk."  
  
"Well, if you weren't drunk then nothing could really happen, and..." Pippin stopped, realizing what Merry was saying. "You weren't. You hadn't had anything to drink all night," Pip mumbled. Merry nodded, and then turned back around to face him.  
  
"I'm sorry, Pip, and I don't know why I did it, but I had to. It was too hard seeing you grow up, and have the girls interested and talking about you all the time, and wanting you, and I just...I guess I was just jealous. I wanted you all for myself." Merry stopped talking to let it sink in. He waited, and when Pippin said nothing, he continued. "I guess I should probably go, then. I am leaving tomorrow, I want to go ahead and get packed and ready." He cupped Pippin's face in his hands. "I'm sorry Pip." He gave Pippin a quick kiss on the forehead, and he stood up and began briskly walking down the hill and back to the Smials. Pippin saw him walk away like that for the second time. He put his face in his hands and cried, the sun sinking lower and lower all the while. The night time bells began to chime. 


	3. The Walk Home

Pippin awoke the next morning, cold and wet from the early summer dew, the top of the hill. He pushed himself up, looking down as the Smials became alive and swarming with hobbits. He realized that his parents were probably looking for him, his mother worried and his father, Paladin, furious. Paladin was always very hard on Pippin; he was the Thain's only son. Pippin's thoughts changed to Merry, and he remembered what had happened the night before. He took off, running down the hill and towards the Smials, causing a great commotion along the way.  
  
Pippin finally reached Merry's door. He stood for a moment, trying to catch his breath and think of what he was going to say. He was raising his hang to knock when a thundering voice stopped him.  
  
"Peregrin Took," boomed Paladin's strong voice. "I'll be having a word with you." His father's voice gave him no room for argument, and with one last longing look at the door he followed Paladin.  
  
It was like it always was. His father pacing, looking at the ground, and his mother standing behind a little, her arms crossed, with her chin resting on one hand, looking worried and torn between supporting her son, or supporting her husband.  
  
"Everyone was looking for you! We had no idea where you were! How could you do something so inconsiderate? And then to make it even worse, you come running through today, knocking people over and reeking havoc everywhere!" It was clear that Paladin was extremely upset. Pippin sat in the chair, as he always did, and looking at his feet, not able, or wanting, to get a word in edgewise. Paladin droned on angrily, and Pippin's mind wandered, until he heard something that struck his attention.  
  
"I'll bet you were with Meriadoc, weren't you," Paladin demanded, more of a statement than a question.  
  
"What?" Pippin stammered.  
  
"Well, we all know his habits," Paladin said. Pippin began to sweat, wondering if he knew... "He causes more trouble than you do, Pippin. He's a bad influence. It would do the both of you well to have some sense knocked into him. I worry about you, Pip. I don't want you hanging around with some rascal like him. You should try and talk some good manners into him. If this happens again, we'll have to look into further punishment. Well, run along now," he finished. Pippin sat staring at him. That was it? No additional scolding? No punishment? He looked to his mother, who shrugged, looking as surprised as he did. Pippin watched Paladin walk briskly out of the room, and then took off, running back to Merry's room.  
  
Pippin finally reached the door, once again panting and out of breath. He knocked once, and then a second time, still with no answer.  
  
"Merry?" He pushed the door open and peered inside.  
  
Merry was gone.   
  
Pippin looked around frantically for any signs that maybe Merry was still here...just getting breakfast, or taking a walk maybe, but all of his things were gone, and the bed was neatly made. Not knowing what else to do, Pippin ran out of the Smials, looking down the road that lead back to Buckland. In the distance, he saw the tiny bobbing figure. Pippin took one last glance behind him, to make sure no nosy Tooks were on his trail, and he took off again, racing up the track, getting closer and closer to Merry.   
  
When he was finally a few feet away, he didn't call out to Merry, but instead jumped onto him, tackling him down to the ground, determined that he wouldn't let Merry get away this time.  
  
"Pippin! What are you doing?" Merry yelled, struggling to push Pippin off of him. "Come on Pip, let me go."  
  
Pippin was surprised at his own strength; Merry had always been "the strong one," but Pippin's hold on Merry wasn't relenting.  
  
"I...Merry, I have to tell you something," Pippin managed, in between strangled breaths.  
  
"Well, what is it?" Merry stopped struggling momentarily to listen to Pippin. But Pippin didn't say anything. All the words he had thought of to tell Merry what was on his mind left him, and his throat suddenly seemed extremely dry. Merry began to struggle again, and Pippin decided it was his last chance. With one last breath, Pippin leaned down and kissed Merry.  
  
When Pippin finally lifted his head up, he immediately sat up on his heels, and looked away from Merry. He picked a blade of grass from the side of the road and began to twirl it around his fingers. Neither of them spoke for a few moments, and Merry finally broke the silence.  
  
"Are you going to explain that?"   
  
Pippin cleared his throat, and was silent for a little while, but then answered slowly and deliberately.  
  
"Paladin said you were a bad influence. I just thought I'd tell you," Pippin mumbled, blushing. Merry smiled, and pulled himself into a sitting position, Pippin still sitting on his legs.  
  
"With a kiss. Did the Thain tell you that would be the best way?"  
  
"Well, it got your attention, didn't it?"   
  
"It did, Pip." They sat like that for a few more minutes, until Merry leaned in and returned Pippin's kiss, with a soft, warm one, that lasting for quite some time, and left a tingling feeling on Pippin's lips.  
  
"My dad says hi," Merry said, making it a game. Pippin smiled and pushed Merry back down gently, bringing their lips together once again.  
  
"Dad says to tell you that you left a messy room," Pippin said, playing along, in-between the lip locking.  
  
"My dad says that isn't true," Merry retorted with another kiss. "And he wants to know if you'll come to Buckland with me," he continued. Pippin broke away, thinking about it as Merry kissed his neck. He shuddered with delight, and wondered what his family would think if he went to visit the Brandbucks. He gave Merry one last lingering kiss.  
  
"My dad says that's fine."  
  
Pippin had decided to go along with Merry, and then send word back to the Smials with someone that he would be staying there for a few days. In the letter he wrote to Paladin, he said his purpose was to "talk some sense into Merry." The real purpose, however, was far from that. Pippin was both excited and somewhat nervous of what was to come to the two of them. They had stayed in the middle of the road, kissing for quite some time. Pippin had never felt like that. His "rumbles in the hay" had consisted of sneaking one or two quick kisses with a few girls at parties, but nothing beyond that. Nothing like Merry. As the two walked along in silence, he couldn't help but wonder what would come next. He had never heard of two male hobbits being together, and he wasn't sure what anyone would think.   
  
"Merry...what exactly does this mean?" Pippin asked him, not able to keep his thoughts to himself anymore.  
  
"Hm?"   
  
"What does it mean...what are we?" Pippin continued. Merry cleared his throat.  
  
"Well, Pip...it just means that, well, you know," he said.  
  
"No, I don't know," Pippin said in reply.  
  
"Oh Pip." Merry sighed, and stopped walking to turn to him. "Let's just take this slow. We don't have to be anything," he took a breath and added, "Not if you don't want to," in quickly.  
  
"Of course I want to...I just don't know what there is to be. What will the others say?"  
  
"Well, that's just the thing Pippin. We won't be able to tell them for a little while. That's why we should just take things slow and keep quiet," Merry explained. He saw the look of dismay on Pippin's face. "Just think of it as an adventure, like the ones we always take. We have to sneak around and not let anyone know. It'll be our little secret." This made Pippin happier, and they walked on, content for the moment. "So we'll just tell everyone you're visiting, and no one will be able to know about the secret mission." He leaned over and kissed Pippin on the forehead. "Ok?"  
  
Not knowing what the "secret mission" was, but not caring too much, Pippin agreed.  
  
"It's getting dark, Pip. You want to camp here for the night?" Merry asked. He knew they could make it back before it got too dark, but he could tell that Pippin was getting tired. Pippin nodded, and Merry took his hand and led him off to the side of the road, where there was a small green clearing through some trees. "We can sleep here for the night. No one will be able to see us from the road," Merry said, gesturing through the trees. He sat down and then patted the spot next to him for Pippin to come over. Pippin sat and snuggled close to Merry, resting his head on Merry's shoulder. Merry turned and kissed him softly, then a little harder, pushing him gently to the ground, and kissing him harder and longer each time. He heard Pippin give out a small moan as Merry crawled on top of him, kissing and biting softly at his neck. Feeling confidant that Pippin was enjoying himself, Merry slowly let his hands graze over Pippin's chest. He felt Pippin shiver beneath him, as he reached up greedily to get deeper into the kiss. They stayed like this for a long time, and slowly Merry let his hands slide down Pippin's chest until they were playing on the waistline of his pants. Pippin had never felt so wonderful in his life, but when he felt Merry's hands reach his waist he began to wiggle uncomfortably. Merry got the message and sat up, still straddling Pippin.  
  
"Too much?" he asked, grinning. Pippin nodded sheepishly, a red blush creeping into his already flushed face. "It's ok, I understand. How's this?" Merry asked, sliding his hands back up some and kissing Pippin's neck.  
  
"That...that's ok," Pippin managed to spit out. Merry found Pippin's mouth again, but soon after, he felt Pippin gently trying to press him away. "I'm tired, Merry," Pippin said. And with that, Merry gave him one last kiss on the cheek and curled up beside him, wondering what exactly he had gotten the two of them into. 


End file.
